Course:ECON371/UBCO2009WT1/GROUP3/Article2

Article 2: Not rubbish! India buys e-garbage

Summary

India has recently been accused of approving the import of e-waste for 'responsible recycling,' much to the dismay of angry environmentalists who disapprove of the imminent damage caused by such waste. From TV's to computers and phones, environmental groups estimate that India produces about 400,000 tonnes of domestic e-waste each year; 90% of which is disposed of improperly. "We don’t understand the rationale for allowing import when there is so much domestic e-waste dismantled and processed in hazardous ways"(The Telegraph). Environmentalist from 'Toxics Link,' a non-government agency in New Delhi has been tracking the movement of e-waste in India for several years now and does not understand why India is going ahead with this course of action. "The government’s first effort should be to reduce load on our environment, not increase it by allowing the import of waste"(The Telegraph).

Analysis

Besides generating nearly 400,000 tonnes of domestic electronic or "e-waste" per year and recycling them informally, India had been approved to import extra e-waste for a more responsible mode of recycling. But based on the second law of thermodynamics, recycling can never be 100% efficient, even if enormous resources were devoted to the task. Those imported e-wastes are more likely to be recycled hazardously and the emissions are cumulative - they stay in the atmosphere for a long period of time. The more e-waste produced and/or imported, the more pollutant emissions that will be released into the atmosphere, which will result in an increase in ambient pollution concentrations. The citizens of India are mainly concerned about the ambient emission increases due to the increase in recycling of the electronic-wastes. The recycling plant is capable of recycling 36,000 tonnes of waste per year and by law are only allowed to import 8,000 tonnes. If the plant is used at full capacity, 77% of the emissions produced will be emissions from the recycled electronics of goods that India consumed. The citizens nearby the plant have a right to complain about the increase in pollution due to the plant, although they cannot blame most of this on the fact India is importing waste. 400,000 tonnes of domestic waste are sitting in landfills, and when burnt with the rest of the garbage in the landfills, it will also create emissions. The fact that the plant is recycling some of the materials should be seen as a benefit not a burden. Those near landfills will most likely be pleasantly pleased with the fact that the recycling plant will be taking away some of the pollution outputs from their general area.

“The government’s first effort should be to reduce load on our environment, not increase it by allowing the import of waste,” said Agarwal. (from Telegraph). According to the flow relationship for the environment and the economy (textbook page 29), there are three ways of reducing the quantity of raw materials used as inputs for production:
-Reduce the quantity of goods and services produced
-Reduce production residuals
-Increase recycling

Reducing residuals from production and increasing recycling requires lots of technology and is expensive, the easier and more efficient (in monetary terms) way to solve this problem is to reduce the quantity of goods and services produced. Although this is fairly unfeasible as decreasing domestic production of electronics will result in unemployment. Reducing imports of electronics via an excise/import tax on foreign goods, is more plausible. Reducing imports of electronics will drive the price of domestic electronic goods up, reducing the quantity demanded. Less e-goods consumed will produce less waste. This is most likely not in the best interests of the average consumer, as India's economy is still developing.

Importing E-waste

According to the article, activists suggest that India has more than enough domestic e-waste. So why would a country which generates 400,000 tonnes of e-waste per year—equivalent to about 7.3 million 120lb CRT Tvs—want to import more e-waste?

Activists:

In the article, a group called Toxics Link is mentioned. They have a website and have written the following article on the matter:

<http://www.toxicslink.org/mediapr-view.php?pressrelnum=99>

From this article it appears that the group is concerned that India is becoming a pollution haven. That is, other countries are using India, with governmental complicity, as a dumping ground for their e-waste so that they do not have to worry about heavy metal contamination on their soil. Ironically, the group appears to be accusing e-waste recycling in India of being what the textbook refers to as a “dirty industry”.

Recycling Company:

In the article it says that 90% of domestic e-waste is recycled in “informal backyard processing units”. Furthermore, in the article a spokesman for the recycling plant who is responsible for importing this waste, Attero Recycling, says “We're making our own efforts to collect waste...but we don't want to keep the plant idle”. This suggests that India does not have a centrally controlled e-waste collection system.

The collection of e-waste represents a cost to the recycling plant. As that plant collects more e-waste from more dispersed areas beyond a certain radius the cost of collection must exceed the cost of importing e-waste from abroad. If the cost of collection was less, the company would have no incentive to import e-waste(we're assuming no corruption here). Yes, it increases the amount of waste coming into India but the firm, though a recycling plant, is not in the business of cleaning up the environment as such. They want to maximize their profit.

Solutions:

The Toxic Link article implores India to “adopt an e-waste law to streamline collection”(Toxic Link). If the government controlled the collection of e-waste they could also control its distribution, eliminating(over time) backyard recycling and making the import of e-waste unnecessary. If the pollution is as bad as suggested by the article, a cost-benefit analysis should prove that such a program would be beneficial for India.

Costs include:
costs of creating a e-waste collection program along with the annual fees involved

Benefits:
creates jobs
less environmental damage from toxic materials
more accountability as emissions shift from non-point source emissions from backyard recycling to point source emissions from recycling plants

Prof's Comments

There are a number of issues going on here. One is the waste collection system in India. Why are junk collectors extracting the valuable material from e-waste themselves rather than bringing it to the recycling plant? I'd guess because they can earn more by not bringing it to the plant. If backyard recycling is going to stop, it has to be more profitable for those who do it now to stop. Why don't we extract valuable metals from our own e-waste when we are through with it? For us in the west, the value of our time is too high, relative to the value of the material in the e-waste to do it ourselves. However, in India, there are many people who have an opportunity cost of time low enough that it is worth their while to burn circuit boards, etc. They may not know about some of the pollution risks, or may be too desperate to care.